Studying at University

Digital skills have always been important for university students, even more so now students are studying in a blended learning environment.

Depending on your subject area you will develop digital skills throughout your induction programme and your course of study. 

All students need to understand the essential elements in order to participate, engage and avoid stressful situations.

Support will be provided by your subject tutors and digital experts but you may like to follow the university links below to help you to get started.

Induction guides

There are induction guides covering essential digital skills created by Digital Services and the Academic Development Unit.  These cover all the key systems you need to be familiar with to use our IT systems to study effectively.

• An introduction to University Systems: Sway (includes: Usernames and Passwords; Accessing and Downloading MS Office, and Accessing email)

There are also video tutorials in Microsoft Stream:

• Induction: MS Teams
• Induction: Blackboard
• Induction: Digital Skills these include:
  • All your IT Essentials 
  • Bite size videos - learn the essentials in one minute. Includes:  Wifi, email, Office 365, OneDrive, saving your work, essential apps and web pages

Many tutors are including these induction videos in either Blackboard or MS Teams so look out for links to these, or ask your tutor if you can't find them. 

Digital Services support

• Borrowing a laptop
• Finding a PC - software which allows you to see available PCs in different locations (has this been updated following the withdrawal of PCs for social distancing)
• University email account
• Free student software
• Passwords
• Printing, scanning and copying
• My Staffs Uni App and quick access to your timetables

Study Smarter with technology

There is a wide range of tools which you can use to help you study effectively.  These include tools to help with reading, writing, text-to-speech, planning and organising, collaborating with others and more.  We have created a guide to recommended tools which are free to download, or are already in-built to the student computers.  

• Study Smarter with Technology: Useful tools guide

LinkedIn Learning (LIL)  is an online educational platform that helps you discover and develop business, technology-related, and creative skills through expert-led course videos. With more than 5,000 courses and personalised recommendations, you can discover, complete, and track courses related to your field of study and your interests.

Key features

• Learn from industry experts. LinkedIn Learning courses are taught by passionate instructors with real-world experience.
• Learn at your own pace. watch at a time to suit you. Confirm your understanding using LinkedIn Learning assessments, and  practice files.
• Experience learning tailored to you.  LinkedIn Learning provides personalised course recommendations based on your role, skills, experience and goals.
• Learn anytime, from anywhere. Download courses to your mobile device to view content while you're offline. Start a course on a desktop device and finish it on your smartphone or tablet.
• Get recognition for your skills Gain certificates to confirm course completion and link this to your LinkedIn profile

To help you find useful relevant content in LinkedIn Learning we have set up reading lists on specific topics .  These can be a great starting place or you can log in directly to LinkedIn Learning and explore all the content available.

Some of the specific areas that a member of our team can help you with include:

• Using MS Teams for appointments
• Accessing online resources in Sway format
• Using Microsoft Office effectively
• Creating long documents in Word
• Using PowerPoint for presentations or academic posters
• Using Qualtrics survey software
• Using  LinkedIn Learning online video training
• Managing your files and using OneDrive

Look out for workshops throughout the year or make an appointment to discuss any of the above topics.